


We're On Each Other's Team

by louiscontroll



Series: One Direction One-Shots [3]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Gen, Ghosts, Honest, Humour, It's like Alcoholics Anonymous, Liam-centric, OT5 Friendship, They're all dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-29
Updated: 2014-01-29
Packaged: 2018-01-10 11:15:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1159048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/louiscontroll/pseuds/louiscontroll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"If there was one thing that Liam would have changed, it was the way that he died. He would’ve preferred something a little more glorifying than falling down the stairs. But, you know, it is what it is. He couldn’t help that he had an easily-breakable head."<br/>***<br/>Everyone's a ghost and everyone really hates it but tries to make it look like they don't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We're On Each Other's Team

If there was one thing that Liam would have changed, it was the way that he died. He would’ve preferred something a little more glorifying than falling down the stairs. But, you know, it is what it is. He couldn’t help that he had an easily-breakable head. 

He also couldn’t help the fact that he was always the first one to the meetings, either. He  _really_  couldn’t help that he was friends (that was questionable) with the four other ghosts that came to the meetings. Perhaps it was because he had been buried at the corner of the graveyard. But since the meetings were always held at his tombstone - well, except for the time Louis just went to his own grave and wouldn’t budge until they came to him - he would’ve figured they would have a better sense of distance.

He turned away from his grave and watched some other mourners instead. He never could look thet tombstone for long. Floating above his body was enough. He swore hours could’ve gone by and still, nobody was there. A low growl escaped his mouth and he was about to give up and leave before a loud  _"BOO!"_ behind him made him yelp and his entire body flickered.

"Harry!" Liam sighed, spinning around and making sure he still had all his appendages. "You’re supposed to scare the mortals, not me!"

"But I’ve gotten good at it!" Harry’s dimples were still showing, even in death, for some reason. "Right? I’m good at it now!" Honestly. If the boy was this cheeky in his afterlife, Liam couldn’t imagine what he was like when he was living. 

Liam just grunted and let himself float lazily. “At least you showed up.”

"What?" Harry asked, spinning around, and then giving Liam a shocked expression. "You mean you were early? Again?"

"I was on time, thank you very much."

"It’s only noon now!"

"Hazza, it’s got to be at least two by now."

Harry looked so miffed, Liam almost felt sorry for him. It was hard to keep track of time as a ghost. Time slipped away from you at incredibly fast rates for the living; the dead had it even worse. “I’ll let you off the hook,” Liam promised, crossing his legs so he was sitting as much as he could without touching the ground. “But the others don’t have any excuse.”

"Oh, Liam," another voice said behind him. "I always have an excuse!" Louis drifted into view, his transparent hand running through his transparent hair, like that could fix it. Louis’ hair was extremely messy, as it had been when he had died, and Liam sympathized with the boy for that. You were stuck looking as you did when you died for all eternity. Liam had a trickle of blood running down his face, and a couple of Harry’s arms were disjointed and bent. Even though Louis had escaped with only unruly hair, he was still massively bothered by it. "You just never believe me."

"That’s because they’re never viable," Liam sighed. "What is it this time? You’re spooking a cat?"

"I’ll have you know," Louis exclaimed, "sitting" cross-legged just like Liam was, "That’s a marvelous idea."

"Where’s Zayn and Niall?" Liam asked, changing the subject before Louis could launch into a whole discussion about cats. "You seen them?"

"I’m here!" Zayn wandered up behind them, letting out a long breath. "I tried to teleport."

Each one of them gave him a collective sigh of sympathy. Ghosts were supposed to be able to teleport, but it was near impossible. Liam once wanted to go to Paris and ended up in Bogota, inside somebody else. That got awkward. “At least you didn’t try to invade a body,” Liam offered as Zayn joined the circle. 

"Ha," Zayn laughed. "There’s always that. Where’s the leprauchaun?"

"He probably tried to teleport," Harry guessed helpfully. "You know. He could be in China."

"He probably tried to get drunk, let’s face it," Louis scoffed. "You know he misses his beer."

There was a small ripple in the air and suddenly Niall appeared in front of them. He stumbled a bit before stopping and collecting himself, and then giving a stage bow when he realized they were all watching him. “I made it!” he declared dramatically. “Am I late?”

"You are all two hours late," Liam said, shaking his head. "I need better friends."

"But, Li!" Niall protested, causing Zayn to give a small laugh. 

"Oi, you," Liam snapped, "You’re standing in my grave."

"Oops," Niall laughed, quickly jumping out and floating into the empty space in the circle. "Sorry, Li. Didn’t mean to."

"Why do we-"

"Hush, Tommo," Liam chastised. "Let me get the meeting schedule. I had some things…to discuss…oh, where did I put it…?"

"Li," Zayn said slowly, "We can’t hold anything. It’s all mind control, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Liam sighed. "I think I left it in Canada, anyway."

"What were you doing in Canada?" Harry asked, his head titled to the side. "It’s cold there, innit?"

"It’s summer, Haz," Liam reminded him. "It’s not winter 24/7. And I got an assignment. You know, the old disappear and reappear."

"Those are the worst," Niall groaned. Liam couldn’t help but agree. It was a common ghost predicament. Nobody knew who it was, but the moment they got reanimated (and not everybody did) they periodically got "assignments" to haunt people. Sometimes, they would simply disappear mid sentence and appear in front of the victim. Or they’d feel an incurable need to go find the victim. Those were also pretty bad. It was like always being hungry, but the meal never satisfied; hauntings were incredibly boring. 

"Since you don’t have the schedule," Louis said, giving him a look, "Can I ask my question now?"

"Not if it’s about cats."

"Such little faith!" Louis gasped, pretending to be offended. "Honestly, Liam. But no. Why do we always have these meetings at your grave?"

"Because the rest of you are always late," Liam said shortly. "Therefore, I pick the spot."

"Yeah, but…we’re hovering over your corpse."

"Would you rather hover over yours?"

"Point proven."

"Getting back on track," Zayn said pointedly, "Why doesn’t everyone just share something that they did this past month?"

"You go first, Zaynie."

"I got one assignment," he said, shrugging. "It was this really old man and I felt really bad about doing it. I tried to just walk out, but some force was keeping me in." They all nodded; they’d been there before. "So I just threw some books around and left before he had a heart attack." He paused slightly. "Visited my family, too."

"Oh, Zayn," Niall sighed, patting Zayn’s back, even though his hand went right through Zayn. "Why’d you do that?"

"Just to see how they were doing," he replied, shrugging. "You know. It’s not like you haven’t."

"I haven’t, actually," Louis said. "Don’t want to. Don’t think I could handle it."

Nobody said anything again. 

"Well, you’re all talkative," Louis laughed. "Since none of you will say anything, I’ll go. I didn’t have an assignment, thank whatever bastard did this. I’m going on a streak, you see. That’s three months. Anyways. I wandered around Europe, basically. Teleported once, just to see where I ended up. Went to Germany. Pretty nice place there."

They nodded before Harry said, “I didn’t do much, either. Had an assignment for a teenage girls’ slumber party. I didn’t really know what to do. No matter how small my action was they all screamed at the top of their lungs.”

"I went to Dublin!" Niall exclaimed proudly. He was "lying" on his side, his arm holding up his head. "Best city. Besides Mullingar. Went into a couple bars, made the drunks scared. It’s pretty funny."

Liam shook his head and laughed a little. “I had my assignment, like I said. Then I patrolled a few graveyards, made sure that any new ghosts felt okay and weren’t scared.”

"Liam!" Louis exclaimed. "Always the gentleman, even in death. You make our adventures look so boring."

Liam shrugged. “I didn’t have anything better to do.”

"This is the only thing I really do constantly, either," Zayn agreed. "I kinda like it."

"Getting all sappy, are we?" Niall laughed. 

"I like it, too," Harry said quietly. 

"Yeah, mate," Niall agreed. "I’m just joking around."

"If we didn’t all like this, we wouldn’t - oh, for the love of…" Louis’ sentence trailed off and his already glassy eyes became more glassy. He grimanced as much as a ghost can grimance before clutching his chest with one hand and biting his lip with transparent teeth. "Gotta go."

"An assignment?" Zayn asked sympathetically. Louis managed a nod before he doubled over a little bit. If a ghost stayed in one place for too long when they were being called, it really,  _really_  hurt. Only moving could make the pain go away. “Then get moving,” Zayn continued. “See you next month.”

"Yeah," Louis whispered, turning away and shuffling one foot in front of the other. As he moved away, he straightened up a little bit, offering the four of them a small salute before middle fingering the sky, and then he disappeared. 

"Well," Niall sighed. "What are we going to do now? Tommo’s out of commission. So much for the streak."

"I’m, uh," Zayn stammered, "I’m going to…go? It’s my mom’s birthday, and I…I just want to see her?"

"Zayn-" Liam began, but Zayn just held up a hand. 

"I know," he whispered. "See you next month."

"Bye," Liam, Niall and Harry all said, before Zayn turned and vanished. 

"I should go, too," Niall sighed, untanging his ghostly limbs and straightening his non-existent back. "You know. Stuff I wanna do. I’ve never been to Africa yet. Kinda want to check it out."

"You go do that," Harry said, nodding. "Have fun with the giraffes. Don’t kill anybody."

"What, and resign them to this fate?" Niall spread his hands and laughed, a short, wispy sound. Liam had no doubt that when Niall was alive, his laugh would’ve been marvelous. "Yeah, mate. Totally gonna do that." The sarcasm was dripping off his words as Niall offered a quick wave and then vanished, only a small wisp of wind in his wake. 

"Why do the meetings always start and end with just us here?" Liam asked, looking at Harry. The younger ghost was standing now, getting ready to leave, while Liam remained relaxed and seated. 

“‘Cause the others don’t wanna accept that this is reality.”

That was probably the only time Harry had ever been philosophical. 

"Let me guess," Liam sighed. "You’re going, too?"

"Yeah," Harry nodded. "Graveyards still creep me out!"

"Harry, you’re a ghost. Graveyards are supposed to relax you."

"Maybe it’s just you, then," Harry laughed, smiling cheekily again. "Bye, Liam."

"Bye, Harry." He disappeared, leaving Liam all alone. Full circle, it was. Sort of deja vu. But, at least one of them was responsible. 

He sighed, getting up and floating away from his old body. That was a relief in itself. He didn’t have anywhere to go, though. As he was contemplating possible cities, rain began to pour down from the sky, passing right through him, but giving him shivers each time. That was it. Somewhere drier would be nice.

Now, if only he could find that schedule…


End file.
